Titans finally explained Jim Gordon’s weird death and it’s nothing like the character’s previous deaths in comics. After nearly two years since the release of season 2, Titans returned to HBO Max on August 12th. Season 3 picks up several months after the events of the previous season. It begins with an adaptation of A Death in the Family that quickly transitions into Under the Red Hood. During these events audiences meet Barbara Gordon (Savannah Welch), who has already suffered at the hands of the Joker. Although only briefly mentioned, it’s clear there are few similarities between her paralysis in The Killing Joke and her heinous attack in Titans.
At this point, Barbara is no longer Batgirl, and she is not Oracle. Instead, Barbara has taken on the role of Gotham City Police Commissioner. In fact, Titans appears to be adapting a Barbara Gordon story from the animated series Batman Beyond. In this series, Commissioner Barbara Gordon is initially opposed to Terry becoming Batman and tries to dissuade him from continuing Bruce’s war. Alternatively, when Dick (Brenton Thwaites) returns to Gotham in Titans, following Jason’s murder, he reunites with a Barbara Gordon who has little time for reminiscing. Moreover, Barbara actively wishes Batman, and the others, would stay out of the GCPD’s business.
Consequently, Titans is able to use Barbara as a means to confront Bruce Wayne (Ian Glen), and later Dick, with Batman’s failures as a hero and, more importantly, a parental figure. It’s clear there is a lot of unaired animosity between the former crime-fighting trio. It likely results from Bruce’s inability to process pain and emotionally comfort his young partners. It’s during one of these heated exchanges between Barbara and Dick, that Barbara subtly reveals Jim Gordon’s fate. The shocking death is nothing like Jim Gordon’s previous deaths in the comics and is linked to a surprising member of Batman’s rogues gallery.
Commissioner Jim Gordon’s death in Titans results from a heart attack after being frozen in a block of ice by Mr. Freeze. Barbara does not go into a lot of detail, but one can see the anger over her father’s death is ever present as well as palpable resentment toward Batman. Though the circumstances surrounding Gordon’s death will likely remain vague, Mr. Freeze is certainly an unusual choice to pin the murder on. It’s also a diversion from any previously written comic. Though Gordon has not died as often as some comic book characters, he does have a few notable deaths Titans could have potentially pulled from.
The most logical death Gordon has faced is at the hands of lung cancer, which makes complete sense as he is often portrayed smoking cigarettes. This natural death occurs in the pages of DC’s Injustice comics after Superman’s x-ray vision reveals several growths on Gordon’s lungs. Conversely, Gordon’s strangest comic book death comes at the hands of Sinestro in a 1994 Elseworlds story, Batman: In Darkest Nights, which features Batman as a Green Lantern. Lastly, in 2020’s Batman Who Laughs, Commissioner Gordon is murdered by Joker with a gruesome acid-filled booby trap. At any rate, Titans rewrites Gordon’s demise in a somewhat unexpected way.
Obviously, Sinestro couldn’t have killed Gordon in Titans, but Mr. Freeze remains a rather odd choice. Lung cancer or the Joker would have undoubtedly been more practical options to dispatch the commissioner. So, why would Titans change this? Perhaps the Titans season intended for Gordon’s death to be jarring, but an ultimately unceremonious event. They wanted Gordon’s death to affect Barbara more viscerally than cancer, while at the same time lacking the grandeur of a Joker attack. In a way, Titans reduces Jim Gordon’s death to another day at the office; just another victim of a Gotham City rogue Batman was unable to prevent.
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